A-Gas RemTec
can provide the refrigerants you need at your facility at no immediate cost to
you. You pay for what you use monthly and offset that cost by sending in your
reclaim. Simple. Quick. Effortless.

Monday, September 16, 2013

We recently achieved the significant milestone of issuing over 40 million carbon credits, each representing one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions reduced or sequestered from the atmosphere. Learn more about the top 10 largest offset projects in the Reserve that helped this achievement:

WASHINGTON, DC, September 5, 2013 (ENS) – Safeway, the second largest U.S. grocery store chain, has agreed to pay a $600,000 civil penalty and implement a corporate-wide plan to reduce its emissions of ozone-depleting substances from refrigeration equipment at 659 of its stores in a settlement of alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act.

The settlement, estimated to cost approximately $4.1 million, involves the largest number of facilities to be brought into compliance under the Clean Air Act’s regulations governing refrigeration equipment.

“This first-of-its-kind settlement will benefit all Americans by cutting emissions of ozone-depleting substances across Safeway’s national supermarket chain,” said Robert Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “It can serve as a model for comprehensive solutions that improve industry compliance with the nation’s Clean Air Act.”

The settlement agreement resolves allegations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department that Safeway violated the Clean Air Act by failing to promptly repair leaks of the hydro-chlorofluorocarbon HCFC-22, a common refrigerant used by supermarkets that is a greenhouse gas and an ozone-depleting substance.

The grocery chain also failed to keep adequate records of the servicing of its refrigeration equipment, the government agencies allege.

EPA regulations issued under Title VI of the Clean Air Act require that owner or operators of commercial refrigeration equipment that contains over 50 pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerants, and that has an annual leak rate greater than 35 percent repair such leaks within 30 days.

HCFC-22 is up to 1,800 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of global warming emissions. The measures that Safeway has committed to are expected to prevent over 100,000 pounds of future releases of ozone-depleting refrigerants that destroy the ozone layer.

Safeway will now implement a corporate refrigerant compliance management system to comply with stratospheric ozone regulations.

Under the settlement, Safeway has agreed to reduce its corporate-wide average leak rate from 25 percent in 2012 to 18 percent or below in 2015. The company will reduce the aggregate refrigerant emissions at its highest-emission stores by 10 percent each year for three years.

“Safeway’s new corporate commitment to reduce air pollution and help protect the ozone layer is vital and significant,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

“Fixing leaks, improving compliance and reducing emissions will make a real difference in protecting us from the dangers of ozone depletion, while reducing the impact on climate change,” said Giles.

HCFCs deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, which allows dangerous amounts of cancer-causing ultraviolet rays from the sun to strike the Earth, leading to adverse health effects that include skin cancers, cataracts, and suppressed immune systems.

“The impact of ozone depletion is a global phenomenon, and the health and environmental harm as a result of Safeway’s emissions do not have particularized impact on communities near stores where the violations occurred,” explains the EPA. “However, all citizens may be more susceptible to skin cancers, cataracts and immune system suppression as a result of violations like these.”

Under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty, the United States is implementing strict reductions of ozone-depleting refrigerants, including a production and import ban on HCFC-22 by 2020.

The settlement is part of EPA’s national enforcement initiative to control harmful air pollution from the largest sources of emissions, including large grocery stores.

EPA’s GreenChill Partnership Program works with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease their impact on the ozone layer and climate change by transitioning to environmentally friendlier refrigerants, using less refrigerant and eliminating leaks, and adopting green refrigeration technologies and best environmental practices.

Safeway, headquartered in Pleasanton, California has 1,412 stores in the United States and 2012 revenues of $44.2 billion. Safeway operates companies under the banner of Vons in southern California and Nevada, Randalls in Texas, and Carrs in Alaska.

The settlement was lodged Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval. It will be available for viewing at www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Available for immediate
shipment. Special pricing in place on a ½ pallet minimum of R134a, R404A, R407C
and R410A.

Stock up for the 2014 season
with the reduced cost of R134a, R404A, R407C and R410A. This pricing will not
last long with shipping cost included. Contact A-Gas RemTec Today For the
Special Pricing 1-888-873-6832.

A-Gas
RemTec also reclaims used refrigerants; our specialized equipment and expertise
allow us to offer a complete reclamation and product stewardship package for
refrigerant users.

Monday, August 26, 2013

BERLIN — Even as showrooms in Europe prepare for the arrival of 2014 vehicles, authorities in France have sparked controversy with a drastic action: blocking the registration — effectively shutting down sales — of some popular new Mercedes-Benz cars, including the A-Class, B-Class, CLA and SL models.

The French environment ministry ordered the ban in response to the German carmaker’s defiance of a European Union regulation on the refrigerants permitted in automotive air-conditioning systems, and the ministry says that it won’t back down until Daimler, the parent of Mercedes, complies. The European Union, though supportive of France’s position, has agreed to step in and referee to keep the squabble from spreading.

Why such an uproar over a matter as arcane as an air-conditioning refrigerant?

The ban on registrations was put in place after Mercedes refused to switch to a refrigerant compound that is considerably more climate-friendly than the one currently used in almost all car air-conditioning systems. Mercedes contends that in its crash tests and other independent safety research, the replacement material was flammable in cases where it leaked onto hot engine parts, and that it produced a dangerous gas when burned — increasing the potential harm to passengers in an accident.

European regulators have agreed to review the German test results as part of the process of resolving the tiff. Because of the safety concerns, Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority approved the new models for sale with the current refrigerant, a position that escalated the matter from a disagreement over technology to a political dispute.

The issue is of interest to American automakers, as regulators in the United States are likely to consider the new European rules. Naturally, it would benefit the global auto industry to select one common refrigerant for all markets, making it possible to build a single air-conditioning system for domestic and export models.

The imbroglio heated up in the 1970s, when the refrigerant compound known as R-12, a chlorofluorocarbon, was deemed a threat to the earth’s protective ozone layer. Like other fluorocarbons, it was outlawed and replaced with supposedly benign alternatives. In the case of vehicles, an ozone-friendly compound known as R-134a took its place. The move is generally regarded to have been effective: since the worldwide shift away from fluorocarbons, the ozone hole has not only stopped growing, it has actually contracted.

But R-134a was found to have its own warts, namely that when leaked, the fluid serves as a potent greenhouse gas, packing a punch 1,400 times as great as carbon dioxide, the Environmental Protection Agency says. When that property came to the attention of the European Union, it mandated that as of 2011 any refrigerant with a global warming potential more than 150 times that of carbon dioxide would be forbidden in all newly engineered models. By 2017, this ban would apply to all new vehicles sold.

In the search for substitute compounds for R-134a, nonflammable carbon dioxide was championed as a viable alternative, and Mercedes announced this month that it would continue to develop CO2-based systems. Carbon dioxide is commonly used as an industrial refrigerant — worldwide by the Coca-Cola Company, for instance — and is cheap and abundant.

But converting to carbon dioxide-based climate control systems, which require high operating pressures, would entail hardware modifications costing around $130 per vehicle, according to Jürgen Resch, director of the watchdog group German Environmental Aid, based in Berlin.

In Europe, automakers chose a new refrigerant developed by Honeywell International and DuPont, called R-1234yf, that has a far lower global warming potential than R-134a (only four times that of carbon dioxide, according to the E.P.A.) and can replace it without any changes to the hardware under the hood. Honeywell and DuPont control the global supply of R-1234yf, and the companies are forecast to reap billions of dollars in sales.

Mercedes originally complied with the refrigerant directive, but its safety tests showed R-1234yf to be flammable, a finding that watchdog groups agreed with.

“The Daimler tests weren’t the first that showed R-1234yf to be extremely dangerous,” Mr. Resch said. “Four years ago, independent testing came to these conclusions, but at the time the likes of Daimler didn’t want to listen. We were surprised but pleased to see they eventually came to the same conclusion.”

Late last year, Mercedes recalled cars fitted with R-1234yf-based cooling systems, saying the company would return to R-134a until a better substitute was found.

France says it will remain steadfast. The registrations of noncompliant Mercedes models “will remain forbidden in France as long as the company does not to conform to European regulations,” the environment ministry told Reuters.

The blocked models account for most of Daimler’s French business and 2 percent of its global sales. Daimler is contesting the ban in court, and a hearing was scheduled for Aug. 23.

The tussle might lead to a better solution for all parties, including American carmakers. Proponents of carbon dioxide, water and air-based air-conditioning systems say that Honeywell and DuPont squeezed them out of the competition before they could get a fair hearing.

The German automakers, at least, are ready to look again. According to Der Spiegel, the German weekly, an air-cooled air-conditioner is nearly ready for market and would already be on the road had the playing field for a replacement system been level.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

A-Gas RemTec’s
Refrigerant Consignment Program has been developed to save you time and
money. We will put refrigerants at your
site and you use when needed. This eliminates the time and cost of running to
the wholesale house to pick up what you need.

The product
will be sent to your location at no cost to you and A-Gas RemTec will bill you
for only what you have used for that month. There are no service fees or hidden
charges. We supply you with what you need for when you need it.

About Me

Established in 1986, A-Gas Americas (Formerly RemTec International) offers products and services that reduce ozone depletion and global warming. Our primary mission is to buy used CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and Halons and reclaim them to industry standards. All CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and Halons are banked and then offered for sale to our customers with full laboratory certifications.
Refrigerants such as R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134a and the 400 and 500 series blends and Halon 1211, Halon 1301 and Halon 2402 are high in ozone depleting potential (ODP), or are high in global warming potential (GWP). All of these halocarbons pose a threat to our environment, and are a major global concern. A-Gas Americas maintains our commitment to environ-mental protection through innovative reclamation of these chemicals.